Encyclopedia of

Isaac Mizrahi Biography

October 14, 1961
•
Brooklyn, New York

Fashion designer

Mizrahi, Isaac.

AP/Wide World Photos. Reproduced by permission.

Isaac Mizrahi holds the distinction of being one of today's
best-known American fashion designers. His fame comes from far more than
his runway creations, however: Mizrahi is a bona fide celebrity who has
applied his abundant energy to a number of diverse projects. In 1995,
early in his career as a designer, he was the subject of a widely praised
film documentary titled
Unzipped.
During 1997 he published a collection of three comic books under the
title
Isaac Mizrahi Presents the Adventures of Sandee the Supermodel.
Two years after the 1998 closing of his high-priced clothing design
business, Mizrahi explored his love of theater by crafting and starring in
a one-man Off-Broadway cabaret show called
Les Mizrahi.
The following year he began hosting his own offbeat talk show, fittingly
called
The Isaac Mizrahi Show,
on the cable network Oxygen. During 2004 Mizrahi returned to his
fashion-design origins with the launch of two new ventures appealing to
very different members of the buying public: an affordable yet fashionable
line of clothing for discount retailer Target,
and Isaac Mizrahi to Order, a company creating high-end custommade
clothing for consumers willing to spend $20,000 on a single dress. Through
all of his various projects, Mizrahi has displayed a fun-loving, humorous,
and adventurous style, proving that even high fashion need not take itself
too seriously.

"There is one common philosophy, one thing that you can do no
matter who you are or what you look like: You can actually get
passionate instead of remaining cool or instead of trying to look like
everybody else. You can—you must—immerse yourself
passionately in who you are if you want to have style."

Mizrahi as student

Mizrahi was born in Brooklyn and raised in Ocean Parkway, New Jersey, in a
fairly religious Jewish household. He recalled being obsessed with fashion
from a very young age, an interest he came by naturally. His father, Zeke,
manufactured children's clothes, and his well-dressed mother,
Sarah, often took her youngest child shopping with her in New
York's finer shops, including Bergdorf Goodman and Saks Fifth
Avenue. In
Unzipped,
Sarah Mizrahi recalled a four-year-old Isaac becoming transfixed by the
artificial daisies decorating a pair of her shoes. At the age of eight
Mizrahi moved with his family back to Brooklyn. Two years later, after his
father bought him a sewing machine, Mizrahi began making clothes for
puppets worn during neighborhood birthday parties. By age thirteen he had
graduated to making clothes for humans, including himself, his mother, and
his mother's friend, Sarah Haddad.

Mizrahi's parents wanted him to get a religious education, and they
enrolled him at a nearby yeshiva, a private Jewish school. The somewhat
rebellious and flamboyant Mizrahi did not exactly fit in at the
conservative school, and he was repeatedly suspended or expelled for
impersonating the rabbis and drawing fashion sketches in Bibles. The
teachers "thought I was sacrilegious," he told Bridget Foley
of
WWD.
"They told my parents I was very abnormal." His parents
supported his interest in fashion, but they were determined that he give
the yeshiva a chance. Foley explained that "after each of his
expulsions, his mother would unzip the high-style creation she had on that
day, remove the red nail polish and jewelry, dig up some dowdy dress, and
go to the Yeshiva, where she would shake her head and, putting on a
pathetic look, make a plea for sympathy." Each time, Mizrahi would
be accepted back. Eventually, however, he left the yeshiva to pursue an
opportunity much closer to his heart, enrolling at New York's High
School for the Performing Arts. There he studied drama, music, and dance,
and, after losing seventy-five pounds during his first semester, he
developed the confidence to express himself.

Mizrahi soon realized that while he loved the performing arts, his true
passion was for fashion design. He began taking evening classes at the
highly respected Parsons School of Design. He later studied full-time at
Parsons, immediately attracting notice for his sophisticated design
skills. After his junior year, Mizrahi landed a part-time job with the
esteemed designer Perry Ellis, and worked full-time for Ellis after
graduating. Mizrahi worked long hours for Ellis, learning all he could
about every aspect of the fashion industry. Though at the time he thought
that Ellis asked too much of him, Mizrahi later realized that he owed his
mentor, who died in 1986, a great deal. "He was a poet, a real
artist," he told Foley. "In retrospect I know I took so much
and he gave everything—from exposing me to the fabric market, to
teaching me not to be too concerned with what the press expects from
you." After leaving Perry Ellis, Mizrahi worked for designers
Jeffrey Banks and Calvin Klein.

Mizrahi as design superstar

In 1987 he started his own business with the financial support of Sarah
Haddad Cheney, formerly Sarah Haddad, the family friend who had
been a beneficiary of the teenaged Mizrahi's earliest design
efforts. He started slowly, crafting his clothes in a rented loft in SoHo,
a neighborhood in New York, and delivering his designs from the backseat
of Cheney's car. These early designs attracted the notice of many
in the industry, and Mizrahi gained the backing of additional investors.
He gave his first major show in the spring of 1988, an event attended by
only a few members of the press who had taken a chance that something
interesting might come from this relatively unknown designer. Those in
attendance soon realized that this chance had paid off, as they witnessed
the unveiling of a major new talent. His line was widely praised for its
fresh approach, combining glamour and elegance with unassuming simplicity.
He mixed unusual colors and made use of patterns, including tartan plaid,
not generally associated with high fashion. Mizrahi became an overnight
sensation, winning the best newcomer award in 1988 and the 1989 award for
best women's designer from the Council of Fashion Designers of
America (CFDA). He went on to win CFDA's prized Designer of the
Year award three times.

Throughout the early 1990s Mizrahi continued to earn praise for his
clever, creative designs, while also exploring his love for the performing
arts by designing costumes for ballets and other productions. His
preparations for the fall line in 1994 were filmed for the documentary
movie
Unzipped,
which was released in 1995. Directed by Douglas Keeve, who at the time
was romantically involved with Mizrahi,
Unzipped
combined photos and home movies from Mizrahi's childhood with
footage of the world-famous designer busily preparing for his upcoming
show. In an article written for
Entertainment Weekly,
actress and former model Lauren Hutton declared that
Unzipped
"is the definitive movie about the fashion industry." She
went on to report that "it's impossible to resist getting
caught up in Isaac's talent and enthusiasm." While some
reviewers complained that Mizrahi comes off as annoying and that he and
the supermodels who wear his clothes appear whiny and spoiled, others
praised the film for its honest look at both the glamour and the
competitiveness of the fashion business. The film certainly raised
Mizrahi's profile among the general public, transforming him from a
successful young designer into a celebrity.

Mizrahi explored other facets of his creativity with the 1997 publication
of his book,
Isaac Mizrahi Presents the Adventures of Sandee the Supermodel.
Consisting of three separate comic books
packaged together,
Sandee the Supermodel
tells the tale of a beautiful girl from Bountiful, Utah, who is
discovered by fashion designer Yvesaac Mizrahi, a character quite similar
to the book's author. On her way to becoming a world-famous
supermodel, Sandee encounters petty and competitive behavior from her
fellow models and struggles with drug problems and an eating disorder. Not
long after the book's publication, Mizrahi began working on a film
based on the Sandee stories. As his fame spread and fashion editors
continued to praise his designs, Mizrahi seemed to have it all. But in
1998 Mizrahi shut down his design business after Chanel, his financial
backer, pulled out due to concerns about low sales figures. Upon learning
of Chanel's decision to withdraw funding, Mizrahi realized that he
had three choices, as he explained to
People
magazine: "One was operating on a shoestring. Another was finding
other backers. The third was closing. I thought, 'Move on, darling.
Move on.'" And move on he did, choosing as his next
adventure a completely new form of self expression.

Mizrahi as performer

In the fall of 2000 Mizrahi drew on his theatrical education to create a
one-man cabaret act, an intimate performance that might be seen in a small
nightclub or restaurant. Mizrahi's show, performed in an
Off-Broadway theater, combined personal stories with gossip about the
fashion industry and classic songs—with lyrics altered to fit
Mizrahi's life—from Broadway musicals. Mizrahi also
displayed his design skills during the show, drawing quick sketches and
using an old-fashioned sewing machine to create articles of clothing.
While critics acknowledged that Mizrahi's singing was not his
strong suit, many were charmed by his open, engaging, and energetic
manner. Such skills came in handy when, the following year, Mizrahi became
host of his own television talk show on cable's Oxygen Network.
With a steady stream of celebrity guests from the fashion and
entertainment worlds, Mizrahi offered audiences an amusing and sometimes
odd array of activities. A typical sampling of the shows during the third
season featured Mizrahi taking late-night talk show host Conan
O'Brien shopping for ties, and teaching
Six Feet Under
star Lauren Ambrose how to knit a hat.

While his television and theater work provided creative satisfaction and,
in some respects, offered a welcome relief from the intensity
of owning a design business, Mizrahi eventually returned to fashion in
2004 with two very different projects. Bringing high fashion to the
average, cost-conscious consumer, Mizrahi launched a line of affordable
clothing with a stylish twist, in partnership with Target, the discount
retailer. With prices beginning at around $10 and topping out at around
$70, Mizrahi's Target line signalled a clear departure from his
earlier high-priced designs. For those who wish to spend outrageous sums
on clothing, however, Mizrahi began a new service called Isaac Mizrahi to
Order. Operating through the upscale department store Bergdorf Goodman,
Mizrahi's business offers custom-designed pieces, with prices
starting at about $5,000. With a June 2004 show highlighting the Target
line as well as newer, high-end items, Mizrahi once again enchanted
fashion editors and journalists, reminding observers of what had been
lacking during the time when he was absent from the scene. Philip D.
Johnson of
Lucire
stated that Mizrahi's return "brought back the keen sense
of fun that has been sorely missing in fashion in recent years."
Both the Target line and the made-to-order service have allowed Mizrahi
the freedom to design clothes without having to worry about managing every
aspect of a full-fledged design business. The arrangement has freed him up
to continually explore new avenues of expression. In the midst of his
return to the design industry, for example, Mizrahi prepared to direct his
first film,
The Extra Man,
based on a novel by Jonathan Ames.

Isaac Mizrahi at the launch of his new Isaac Mizrahi Boutiqe for
Target.